Feb 2007
SPS is an acknowledged leader in procurement classification and coding structures and their implementation into IT systems. We are pleased to see that the London Centre of Excellence is leading the way on the introduction of a new procurement classification (not coding) standard for local government (and others that wish to use it). It is called ProClass and has been developed and trialled over the last two years across local authorities.
ProClass is primarily designed to support the exchange of expenditure and contract information between authorities and underpin collaborative working. It is structured to target and analyse high value spend, so will typically be used only in expenditure analysis tools and contracts registers. ProClass has been incorporated into the Contracts Register Service (PDF 44kb) which is used across London.
The LCE, supported by other regions has commissioned Coding International to map ProClass to existing coding structures UNSPSC, NSV (alpha sections) and Thomson and maintain this service on a monthly basis. These files are also available to download and can be used by any public or private sector body.
The latest version of ProClass and it's cross-references to other classifications are available from the Pan London Management Strategies section of the LCE website and from other regional websites.
Downloading the Pan London Management Strategy, New Standards for Procurement Classification, ProClass (PDF 276kb) will provide more details on ProClass and set out how London will take this forward.